Day: October 3, 2019

August 21, 2019

I haven’t posted a map of downtown Ottawa because I knew I’d be posting pictures of this metallic map I found near the art museum:

Pretty much everything I have posted in the past three days are from the north and east sides of town, or the right side of the first photo above.  I have “zoomed in” to that portion in the photo below:

The art museum is the largest building in the top portion of the photo (21), the Mint is just above it (23) and the Notre-Dame Cathedral is across the street to the right (22).  Major’s Hill Park is shown with the large disk just below the center of the photo and the portion of Rideau Canal which empties to the Ottawa River is just left of it (4).  The Farmers Market is at the far right of the photo (25).  I will discuss the large building at the lower portion of the photo (5) in a future post.

I haven’t talked about the Parliament complex in posts from the last 3 days but will be getting to it very soon.

I did take pictures there on the first day I was in town but the weather was much nicer the following morning so I will post those photos when I am finished posting Wednesday’s photos.

Here is some other artwork I found on the first day I was downtown:

This piece was in a small park near the Notre-Dame Cathedral:

This wooden sculpture was in Major’s Hill Park:

It is quite simply constructed of wooden planks bolted together and stained:

The staircase below goes from the courtyard where the giant O-T-T-A-W-A letters are up to Major Hill’s Park.  The US Embassy is just to the right of the stairs.

I hadn’t noticed it when I took the first photo but there are ramps on both sides of the stairs to make taking bicycles up or down the stairs easier for riders (and LOTS of people in Canadian cities get around by bicycle).

This piece was inside a former bank, now occupied by the tourist Visitor Information Center.  I don’t remember if it was part of the original building or moved there from somewhere else.

This was the elaborate tile floor in the lobby of the former bank:

And silly me thought Molson only made beer…

 

August 21, 2019

This is a large city park on the east side of town, located across the street from the National Gallery.  It includes lots of open space, paths and flower beds.  There are pieces of art scattered around the property and it is sometimes used for special events.  Most days, however, it is a beautiful, quiet space to just enjoy a nice day and take a break.

And while I was wandering through the park I found a statue of me (from a prior life)!

Wait a minute – they forgot an ‘o’……

No, there really was a John By, an engineer who designed the Rideau Canal which flows through town and empties into the Ottawa River, which separates Ottawa and Québec provinces.  This statue is of Lt. Col. By overlooking his handiwork.  The park used to be named Colonel’s Hill but was later renamed to honor a higher ranking Canadian historical figure.

You’ll be seeing photos of an interesting part of the canal and the river in a future post.

 

August 21, 2019

Just up the street from the National Gallery Museum in the Mint, where they make loonies and twonies (and various other coins).  They did have tours but I had just missed the start of one and didn’t want to hand around long enough to take the next one.